salon

Etymology

Borrowed from French salon (“reception room”), from Middle French, from Italian salone (“large hall”), augmented form of sala (“hall”), from Lombardic sala (“room, house, entrance hall”), from Proto-Germanic *salą (“dwelling, house, hall”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“human settlement, village, dwelling”). Cognate with Old High German sal (“room, house, entrance hall”), Old English sæl (“room, hall, castle”), Old Church Slavonic село (selo, “courtyard, village”), Lithuanian sala (“island”). Doublet of saloon.

noun

1. A large room, especially one used to receive and entertain guests.
2. A gathering of people for a social or intellectual meeting.
3. (art) An art gallery or exhibition; especially the Paris salon or autumn salon.
   Matisse showed in every autumn salon and every independent. He was beginning to have a considerable following. Picasso, on the contrary, never in all his life has shown in any salon. His pictures at that time could really only be seen at 27 rue de Fleurus. 1933, Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas
4. A beauty salon or similar establishment.